The Personal Shopper

“Jesus Ava. Don’t apologize.”

She stands up on her tiptoes and kisses my lips. She pulls away a little and whispers. “To be continued”

I grab her and pull her close and deepen the kiss for a moment. “You better not break that promise.” I wink at her and then pull her hand back toward the room.

“C’mon let’s get going. Don’t want Granny Pearson waking up to an empty room now do we?”

Ava laughs. “No, definitely not. Then she won’t make you any of those cookies you love.”

I groan thinking about her homemade cookies. “Hurry up. I’m blaming you for being late if she threatens to take the cookies off the table.” Ava just laughs again and heads into her room to throw on some clothes.

???

Ava

I throw on some yoga pants and a sweatshirt to go to the hospital. I don’t want to look suspicious. I am pretending I just got out of bed and headed over. I am still grinning ear to ear. I don’t know if it’s from the amazing orgasm I just had or the fact that I was finally with Parker. Well, kind of.

I come out of my room, and Parker is standing in my kitchen in some jeans and a hoodie. “How’d you change so fast?”

He just shrugs. “Sorry I didn’t spend 10 minutes picking out sweats.” He motions to what I am wearing. I laugh back at him. “It did not take me ten minutes.” He just looks at me like yeah, okay, sure, whatever you say.

I just roll my eyes at him. “Alright, you ready to go?”

Parker nods, and we head out. We are walking to the elevator when he reaches to hold my hand. He links his

fingers with mine like this is how it has always been.

I look down at our joined hands and then pull mine away. I look back up at Parker, and he looks hurt. I face my head toward the ground. “Any way we can just keep whatever this is,” I point between us, “between us for now?”

“Oh.” Parker whispers. “Yeah. Okay.”

I look back up at Parker again. “It’s not like you're my dirty little secret or anything.” I laugh. “It’s just my dad…”

Parker looks at me confused. “Your dad doesn’t like me?”

I laugh. “No, it’s not that. It’s just well kind of. He just won’t budge on his work policy.”

Parker doesn’t have any idea what I am talking about, so I continue. “Employees are allowed to date, but not within the same department.” I realize I just implied that Parker and I are dating. Shit. I try to recover. “Not that we are dating or anything, but if he found out anything was going on, he wouldn't make an exception for you.”

Parker just looks at me for a minute and then smirks. “We’re not dating?”

I just roll my eyes at him. “Shut up.”

He reaches for my hand again, “But it’s so much more fun to make you squirm.” He brings our joined hands up to his lips and presses a kiss there. “Besides, your dad isn’t here now is he?” Then he gets a startled look on his face. “Oh god. He didn’t install security cameras in your hall or something?”

I just laugh again. “No. I guess you’re right.”

We head down to the parking garage, and I head to Parker’s car. He laughs. “Who says we have to take my car?”

I just laugh back. “Hey, you’re the one who said we're dating. I’m an old fashioned girl. My boyfriend always has to drive.” I wink at him.

He laughs even harder. “Oh, I’m your boyfriend now? Wasn’t it just this morning you called me an asshole? You’re a hard one to keep up with Ava.” I can’t very well admit that I’ve been in love with that asshole since I was thirteen, so I just laugh and get in the car.

The hospital is about 30 minutes away, so I plug the address into my phone so it can take us around traffic. I place my hand on Parker’s thigh, and he looks down and sighs. “Granny Pearson better make me a couple batches of those cookies after what I’ve had to endure tonight?”

I laugh. “Endure?’

He looks down at my hand again and then back at me. “Yes.”